1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to improvements in ironing systems provided by the hospitality industry to guests.
2. Prior Art
Most of the better hotels, motels, inns, resorts and other members of the hospitality industry provide guests with irons and ironing boards to enable the guests to press garments. Usually, the ironing board is located in a guest room closet supported by a bracket mounted on the closet wall. Nearby, the iron is stored, usually in vertical attitude, in some form of housing affixed to the closet wall.
In order to press wearing apparel, it is merely necessary to lift the ironing board from the bracket, carry it to a location in the room that is close to a wall outlet, unfold the board to a convenient height and plug in the iron brought from the housing.
While this amenity is a welcome addition to any accommodation, risk to the guest and damage to the property is an ever present possibility in the typical prior art installation just described. More specifically, guests are sometimes prone to remove the iron from the closet and, instead of using the ironing board provided, will connect the iron to an electrical outlet and press their garments on the bed spread, bed sheet, or on the carpet or on a towel placed on a desk, dresser or other handy article of furniture. Not only does this practice often result in scorching the spread, sheet, carpet, towel, or furniture, but it sometimes causes fires when the guest leaves the room and forgets to disconnect the iron.
Furthermore, it is not unknown for a guest to check out with the iron concealed in the guest's luggage.
Although not of paramount consideration in the overall operation, scorch damage to the property and theft of the iron itself are of on-going concern to management. These problems are unfortunately inherent in the ironing systems heretofore used.
Nine U.S. patents were made of record in a co-pending design patent application, Ser. No. 29/061,365, filed by applicants herein on Oct. 11, 1996, for the Iron Holder, one of the key components of the present invention.
The nine cited patents are identified as follows:
Echols Des. 211,124 PA1 Wilson et al. Des. 211,603 PA1 Larkins Des. 2,514,400 PA1 Sitnick et al. Des. 2,528,846 PA1 Wentz Des. 3,136,516 PA1 Inverso Des. 3,176,947 PA1 Agrusa Des. 3,477,672 PA1 Kocsak Des. 3,951,369 PA1 Lomagno Des. 3,967,802
It is believed that the present invention is neither anticipated by nor rendered obvious by the art cited above, copies of which accompany the Information Disclosure Statement.